apetito is a global organisation with 50 years experience in providing frozen food and catering solutions to Care Homes, Local Authorities and Hospitals. We also provide a frozen meal delivery service to the public via our franchise Wiltshire Farm Foods and a community meals delivery service through Local Authorities via apetito Services.

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apetito's Head of Care Homes Talks Malnutrition

05 Aug, 2011

Lee Sheppard, Divisional Manager Care Homes, apetitoMalnourishment. It’s not an issue you would associate with the UK, yet malnutrition costs the NHS £13 billion every year. The BAPEN Nutrition Screening Survey from 2010 identified that 37% of care home residents are malnourished and it would appear that many are entering homes already suffering with the condition.

The rate of malnutrition seems to be greater in residents admitted from hospitals (43%) and other care homes (42%) than in those admitted from their own homes (30%), but all figures are still unacceptably high.

These startling findings all too often fail to reach the public, and so malnourishment remains an ongoing problem across all areas of Social Care, which is something that must be addressed.

We know that the importance of good nutrition is something fundamentally relevant to us all, especially when tackling malnutrition. As we age, our nutritional requirements remain constant, but our appetite begins to decrease, so the nutritional content of what we do eat becomes far more significant.

Many external factors can also affect appetite, so in this edition of news bites we aim to give you some useful hints and tips on how to make mealtimes appealing using our nutritionally balanced meals.

  • This article appeared in this month's Care Home News Bites which you can download here